More sightseeing!

Today was a REALLY fun day here in Shanghai. We went out to see the city. There is a famous TV tower in the middle of Shanghai that you take the elevator up to the second sphere. There were a lot of Chinese tourists and they were so cute with their matching hats and lookind strangely at us. The view was a bit hazy but amazing! The boats going past and the skyscrapers extending into the fog. We got to see the building that they filmed Mission Impossible 3 on where he swings from building to building. The view was great but the best part of the day was yet to come.

We went down to the bottom of the building where they had a Shanghai history museum. I went with Christian, Chris, and Jared. They had wax figures doing native jobs. It was interesting to see life back then. There was a small corridor to sit down so Jared suggested we sit for a spell. After sitting for a few minutes I suggested that we pretend to be wax figures as people passed in the hallway. It started out as a joke for our group, but it ended up being a huge spectical. People were so confused and didnt know what to do. Christian and myself managed to hold our poses when the others cracked. It was so hard to stay still in a funny pose when there are chinese people poking you and wondering if you are real. It was so funny. I cracked before Christian did. People ate it up. They took pictures with us and some older ladies freaked out when they realized he was real. It was classic. Goooooood Times!

We next had lunch at a silk factory and after that we toured the factory. AMAZING! It was so cool to see the silk worms spin their thread and see the workers pull the fibers and make silk. It was a really cool experience to see the strength of a natural fiber like that. They even had a fashion show of some of the silk clothes.

Our last stop was the Yuyuan Garden. I have never seen such a beautiful garden in all my life. It was built for the builders parents as a retirement in the late 1500's. It took 10 to 18 years to build and by that time the parents had dies. And sadly the builder only lived there one year before he passed away. I want something like that in my back yard. I would never leave! Every angle had something to offer. I would love to spend some quality zen time there. I have a ton of pics so I will have to post them when I get a cord to connect to the computer.

They had more of the chinese shops around the gardens. It reminded me so much of China Town in San Fran. I got to taste the famous Shanghai Dumplings along with my Dairy Queen Blizzard. They have a Green Tea Blizzard for the Chinese market... weird!

We are leaving Shanghai tomorrow morning at 5:30 am! Ouch! Off to Xian! Yeah!

The trip is half over! I have fit so much into 2 and a half weeks. We have been go go go this whole time. It is cool to see how much you can get done.